I would like to get our kitchen cabinets painted but I’m worried about it peeling. But we have some many cupboards we will never replace them.
Re: granite. I like nothing about it - not the shine, not the veining, and as Mathmom says “the spots make me tired”. It’s too busy and honestly to me it reminds me of those glossy bowling balls. Yuck. I do love a dark soapstone or even butcher block. I’ve seen some quartz or even a lesser surface that looks marble’ish but will limited veining I like.
You know if you re-decorate, repurpose your stuff by giving away or re-selling. However when you try and sell your old tired silk flowers and there are no takers that might be a clue that it was past time to get rid of them!
I get enormous satisfaction from having my house look like I like it. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect by any means - far from it - because we are still helping our last with grad school and so there isn’t $$ to upgrade big items. But we are homebodies for the most part and what little extra cash I have to spend on something is more likely to be items for my home as opposed to travel, eating out, etc.
"The people who say never change anything you’ve loved: Do they keep the same hairstyles they wore and loved in the 80s? " - Yea, pretty much. It gets harder to find hairstylists that still do perms (which are somewhat looser now than in 1980s), but perms are a great low maintenance way to deal with my fine, flat hair. Maybe someday I’ll decide to color my hair (especially if I get grey).
I do buy new clothes, but I have also kept a lot of old clothes (it works because I don’t buy many trendy styles.)
I have one fake plant. And I love it. We have a 1990’s two story foyer, and there is a shelf that extends out into the room…half way up. It’s not reachable and I didn’t want any shelves like it because it is not reachable. BUT it was in the plans oh well.
A very very dear friend died. After her death, her husband said he had a few things to give me because he thought she would have liked me to have them. One was a very pretty basket with fake ivy in it. When he delivered it, I got out a ladder, and put it on that shelf. It looks terrific. I take it down every so often to give it a hair dryer dusting…but at least it doesn’t need to be watered! And, of course, the plus is that I think if my friend every day!
I’m another one who has had the same hairstyle for over 30 years. When I finally found a style that worked with my very thin, lifeless hair, I saw no reason to attempt a style that wouldn’t work with my hair, just because it’s “in”.
When I purchased eyeglass frames for the first time in my life about four years ago, I did zero research to see what the “in” styles were. So when most of the frames, which I later found out were “in”, looked terrible on me, I rejected them. I went to seven or eight places before I found a pair that fit my face and coloring. I love them and receive a lot of compliments on them, but they aren’t “in”. I’ve seen so many people wearing the “in” styles that don’t fit them properly, or aren’t flattering, but as long as they are happy…
My feeling…this is our home. We should have it decorated any way we want to decorate it…and if that includes grannies old, outdated things…so be it.
When we get ready to sell our house, we will de clutter everywhere. We will probably even get rid of or store some furniture. We might…might…take some curtains down. We will get nice white towels for the bathrooms for showings.
I’m not redecorating my house in anticipation of selling it. Anything we do is because we want to do it.
So this thread has sort of turned into defending what you do or don’t have - which wasn’t the thread intent (I don’t think) but also I’m sure I made a few comments that were off the intent!
But going with the thread idea, I do think people tend to live an a house without a thought of changing anything or really looking at their own things for a “tired” level - sometimes for years or decades!
So I like the intent of the thread - looking at your house and giving it some thought - are you still sporting decorating styles or items that really REALLY are tired and old?
I mean, you can keep those items if you love them - but maybe recognize that your typical 20-40 year old person would have no desire to have or use some of your styles - be it valances, bed ruffles, sleigh beds or dried flower swags???
Our 30 something kids have already told us what they want…and don’t want from our house.
So when it comes time for us to say goodbye to portable things…things we don’t want will get donated.
We know we have some updating to do…our house is 25 years old. We know we need to upgrade the two upstairs bathrooms…new floors, vanities, and toilets at least.
We know we need new carpeting upstairs…it’s done it’s 25 years if service.
But we aren’t changing an “outdated trend” like our granite counters…which we really like anyway.
And yes, when it’s time to sell…we will remove any lace doilies, and the like.
These threads always remind me just how glad I am that I missed the “must be stylish” gene when they were handing them out. We’ve saved so much money that way and we don’t give a hoot what others think. We like our house, our hairstyles, our clothing, etc. It’s fine if others don’t. Changing something isn’t going to make us love “it” more.
I’m in the process of selling my mom’s house now. It didn’t need anything updated except some minor things to be in the current code. If the new owners want something updated, they’ll do it. It’s certainly not modern unless one counts having central AC, etc.
When we buy places (we own rentals and will likely be getting a vacation condo soon), places being too updated actually turn us off. We don’t care for many of the new styles. We watch some forms of House Hunters and hope for some of the bargains they nitpick about on the show (which I know is all staged anyway).
I went to a stone place today to look at slabs.The house we bought is 25 years old and the countertops are destroyed. They are some kind of travertine.
I was just amazed at many of the amazing slabs I saw that I had to go look at to see what they were-they were granite! This isn’t your mother’s granite with the uniform speckled patterns. Some of them were just breathtakingly beautiful (well, if you’re the type that can be that wowed by a countertop). You won’t be finding these at Home Depot or Lowe’s or mass market design stores. Several of them had me fooled into thinking they were marble or quartzite. One dark gray one had no speckles at all and kind of reminded me of a beautiful soapstone. I had no idea granite came like that.
Granite is a great stone in terms of maintenance and ability to handle heat, acids, etc. If I weren’t so determined to find a beautiful quartzite as a change in my new house, I might well select one of those gorgeous granites I saw today.
As it is, I have to buy a new countertop for my kitchen, so I might as well pick something I’ve never had before. I’m looking for a quartzite that isn’t too busy or too shiny. I’ve seen several that will work, but nothing so far that I can’t live without. It seems that the centerpiece of your kitchen should be something that really wows you.
Speaking of perms, I haven’t smelled perm solution at my salon in years, but I did the other day. Sure took me back, like certain smells can.
@abasket, I agree about the motivation of my thread. I tend to decorate something and then don’t see it again. Obviously, I have 11 things from the list, so never get in a hurry. But I do enjoy more updated looks, without breaking the bank.
Another thing I need to update are all the shiny brass “items of interest”, sitting around. I think when we update the FR, we will do it all. I was going to paint the paneling this winter, but never got around (time and money), to find new furniture. I didn’t want to paint until that was picked out. I’m still working on our master from the fire this fall…turning my attentions to the bath.
Anyway, if you all like your stuff and it’s outdated, that’s great. I guess my thread is speaking to those who think like I do.
I’m back at the list of outdated stuff linked on page 1. I am so relieved that I only have 1 thing still stuck in my house. It’s a couple of Edison bulbs that I can easily get rid of?
I think the Edison bulbs work well with industrial or steam punk kind of style. They are OK when inside a complimentary light fixture. I think what is ‘out’ ( was never appealing to me personally) are those fixtures where wires just hang down with the Edison bulbs. Like the bulb itself is the focal point.
Wanted to add that I was stuck in late 90s, early 2000 decor. all the warm earth colors. Recently updated everything. Lots of memories of ‘I made these rust gold curtains myself on the sewing machine’, ‘these were a gift’, ‘These were handed down’. Not one regret. Everything is so much lighter, open, and brighter and I’m having fun with pops of color. I definitely needed an update.
Confessing to (1) one set of vertical blinds, (2) valances (we just had two bathrooms remodeled and there was dust EVERYWHERE, so they’ve all been dry-cleaned and look brand new), and granite countertops (which I still love).
I do hate the vertical blinds, but I don’t know what to replace them with. They cover the sliding glass door in the kitchen which leads to the deck and pool and is used often. Plenty of trees in the back yard for privacy, but I don’t think I could go with leaving it bare because I would probably scream at my own shadow every night… Funny thing is we have the same slider in the dining room, and don’t have any blinds there, but I’m not walking around in the dining room at night.
Does anyone have any recommendations for blinds for a sliding door?
My sister recently did a big remodel, it’s beautiful. White cabinets, quartz like countertops, brass fixtures. Wood floors. It truly looks like it came out of a magazine. My sister picked everything out herself.
My sister in law recently did a big remodel. She had wood floors installed and finished them glossy black. She took all the wide trim around her windows and painted it black with stark white walls. She employed a decorator to do this (and more I haven’t mentioned).
I think it looks terrible, and most of the family agrees. My sil says she thinks it was the worst mistake she’s ever made.
2 people, 2 different remodels. Both are very in style and trendy. One looks great imo and one. Not so much.
So do what you like and what looks good to you. I’m slowly updating my house, in what I like. Not what “other” people say is trendy. I’m not going to go with gray and stark white everything. Don’t care, I like what I like.
A mistake I make twice was not removing the large mirror over the 2 sinks in bathrooms. From what I see, people put in 2 separate mirrors, and lights above each.
We redid our master bath a few years ago, but kept the large mirror over the sinks. Its now trimmed in the same wood as the new vanity and I love the way it looks.
The woman at my local flower shop, where I get flower arrangements and plants, tells me that millennials don’t by flowers or live plants. She says they tell her they don’t want to be bothered by having to take care of live plants and that flower arrangements just die and you have to clean them up. My oldest is a millennial and she probably wouldn’t have plants, but her H likes them and he takes care if them. Their plants are thriving.
Both of the giant glued to the wall mirrors we had self-destroyed (one completely peeled off the wall and broke into tiny pieces, and the other cracked across). So they got replaced with more up to date stuff from Electric Mirror.